Investigative Report: Former Chief County Solicitor Represented New Friendship Ridge Owners While Still Employed By The County

The Chief Solicitor for Beaver County who oversaw a sale of the county-run Friendship Ridge nursing home then began representing the facility’s new corporate owners after the sale was finalized but while still serving as an attorney for the county.

An extensive and ongoing investigation by the Beaver Countian into the sale of Friendship Ridge has now revealed that then-Chief County Solicitor Joe Askar was retained by Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services to represent them just months after they finished closing on the facility in March of 2014. Askar attempted to collect well over $1 million in payments from Medicaid on behalf of Comprehensive Healthcare following the sale of Friendship Ridge — money for services provided to patients while the facility was still owned by Beaver County that were inexplicably never billed for at the time.

Several county officials the Beaver Countian spoke with said they had been unaware that Askar developed a business relationship with the new owners of Friendship Ridge while he was still serving as Chief County Solicitor.

“I had no knowledge of that,” responded Commissioner Tony Amadio when asked by the Beaver Countian during a public work session this week if he knew Askar had been representing Comprehensive at the time.

Attorney Joe Askar insisted to the Beaver Countian that his relationship with Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services was in no way improper.

“I was a part-time Chief County Solicitor, I wasn’t a full-time employee,” said Askar. “I was allowed to have a private practice.”

Attorney Askar confirmed he never informed the Beaver County Board of Commissioner he took on Comprehensive Healthcare as a client following the sale of Friendship Ridge but while still working as their attorney. Askar said “attorney-client privilege” issues prohibited him from revealing his relationship with Comprehensive to the Board.

“I couldn’t say who I represented unless it conflicted with the County,” said Askar. “There is no conflict there, it happened after the sale and it didn’t involve county dollars.”

Attorney Joe Askar told the Beaver Countian he got permission from his client Comprehensive Healthcare to discuss his representation of them for this reporting. He said he was hired by Comprehensive to collect Medicaid funds from the state for services performed by Beaver County that the County never bothered billing for when it owned the facility.

“The claims were never filed by the County with Medicaid. I don’t know why,” said Askar. “We’re talking large amounts of money, over $1 million.”

Askar said that under a provision in the sales agreement for the facility — which he helped to draft on behalf of the County in conjunction with outside counsel — those unbilled accounts became the property of Comprehensive Healthcare the moment the sale was finalized.

“In the agreement as part of the sale of Friendship Ridge, [Comprehensive Healthcare] bought the old account receivables,” said Askar. “Some were a couple of years old, some were 90 days […] These guys couldn’t collect a dime until the sale was finalized.”

Beaver County Controller David Rossi told the Beaver Countian he did not know there were well over a million dollars in accounts that had not been billed by the county prior to the sale of Friendship Ridge, and that he had not seen anything documented during the transaction detailing those monies.

“I was completely unaware there were unbilled accounts prior to the sale,” said Rossi. “If you look at everything written down pertaining to the sale none of that was ever mentioned. There was a statement in the agreement that Comprehensive gets the account receivables, but no specific details were ever included […] I’m outraged and these Commissioners should be outraged. We need to find out when did these services occur and why weren’t they billed.”

Controller Rossi described Friendship Ridge as operating almost as an independent entity when it was owned by the county.

“It was basically a subsidiary of the County, they had their own controller, their own payroll clerk, their own lawyer,” said Rossi. “How this amount did not get billed is unfathomable to me.”

Rossi said the prior Board of Commissioners had contracted Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services itself to assist in managing Friendship Ridge for them in the months leading up to the final sale of the facility.

Commissioner Tony Amadio also stressed that no one ever advised him there were over $1 million in services never billed to Medicaid when Friendship Ridge was still county-owned. Amadio is the only remaining Commissioner involved in the sale of the facility who is still serving on the Board.

“The lawyers negotiated this sale, we set the general parameters but we weren’t involved in the day-to-day stuff,” said Amadio. “So the answer is no, I didn’t know about this. What I know is there were seven different attorneys involved in this sale.”

Askar said he began working to collect those unbilled funds after the sale was finalized in 2014 (he remained Chief County Solicitor until he resigned at the beginning of 2015). Askar told the Beaver Countian he was to receive a percentage of all of the monies he was able to collect on behalf of Comprehensive Healthcare.

“I was retained on a contingency fee basis,” said Askar. “If I could collect the monies from the state, I could get a piece […] I was provided by [Comprehensive] with the names and dates of the patients.”

Attorney Askar detailed the situation in a letter to the Beaver County Assistance Office dated November 2014, an organization run by the PA Department of Public Welfare which provides help with Medicaid issues:

“The issue arose when [Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services] discovered that they were purchasing ‘all accounts receivable and payable’ inclusive of past due accounts. Simply put, the County by and through Friendship Ridge, failed to timely file for Medicaid reimbursements (within 180 days) of receiving services. And now, the new owners are respectfully requesting the gracious opportunity to be permitted to make application for such services that were rendered.”

Pennsylvania State Representative Jim Christiana said attorney Askar also reached out to him in 2014 asking for his assistance in attempting to collect the Medicaid funds. Christiana said he believed at the time that Askar was working in his capacity as County Solicitor.

“My perception was that he was still representing the County, he never disclosed to me he was working on behalf of Comprehensive Healthcare,” said Christiana. “In the way he portrayed it, he was aware of these Medicaid dollars and asked me if there was any way that I could be of help getting the money. I told him no, there was no way that a legislator could expedite the money that was owed […] It didn’t make sense then and it doesn’t make sense now; it’s even more bizarre finding out he wasn’t even representing the County during that discussion.”

Representative Christiana said Askar never provided him with any specifics about the Medicaid funds he was trying to collect and there were no followup conversations.

“Knowing now that he was representing Comprehensive on a contingent basis sheds some light on why he was trying whatever way possible to get that money,” said Christiana. “He was trying to do whatever he could to help influence the situation; the problem was he found out I couldn’t be of any help […] I wish I had known at the time that he wasn’t representing the County. You kind of shake your head and say, what was he thinking?”

Commissioner Sandie Egley said the latest revelations surrounding the sale of Friendship Ridge have added to her level of concern and frustration.

“Nobody had knowledge of anything,” said Commissioner Egley. “Nobody knew this person did this, and nobody knew that person did that, and here I am sitting as a new Commissioner having to deal with their lack of knowledge from three years ago […] This will be a new piece of the puzzle that seems to complicate things even more.”

Commissioner Dan Camp said he is similarly frustrated by the latest revelations.

“This is the first I’m hearing about this,” said Commissioner Camp. “It is unfortunate that the prior Board in its administration of Friendship Ridge did not go after this Medicaid money. Right now the focus of the current Board of Commissioners should be to discuss how we are going to resolve the dispute between Beaver County and Comprehensive Healthcare about who owes who money.”

Attorney Joe Askar said he was ultimately unsuccessful in his effort to collect the over $1 million in Medicaid money on behalf of Comprehensive Healthcare. Regulations demand all services for care must be billed to Medicaid within 180 days, and by the time Askar attempted to collect, the monies had already been reallocated by the state, he explained.

“Comprehensive didn’t get a dime and neither did I,” said Askar. “They took a gamble and they lost.”

Attorney Askar’s representation of Comprehensive Healthcare did not end with his attempts at collecting Medicaid monies or when he resigned his employment with the County in January 2015.

Although the extent of his professional relationship with Friendship Ridge’s new owners is unclear, Askar’s name came up during a public work session of the Board of Commissioners held late last year. The Board was considering a request by Comprehensive Healthcare to grant them an easement for a county-owned property abutting the facility.

County Financial Administrator Ricardo Luckow publicly suggested during the meeting that Comprehensive Healthcare should be charged a fee for the easement — as he said would be customary — but the Board of Commissioners ultimately agreed unanimously to grant them the easement free of charge. Questioning by the Beaver Countian of then-Chief Solicitor Andrea Cantelmi (who previously worked as Assistant Solicitor under Joe Askar) revealed that Askar had been the attorney representing Comprehensive Healthcare in their easement request to Beaver County.

The Beaver Countian will continue its years-long investigation into the sale of Friendship Ridge and report as additional information comes to light or new developments related to the transaction occur.

Remember how we were so flush with cash from this incredible deal that we were going to buy bronze “No Smoking” signs for the courthouse?

Ah, the salad days of Beaver County!

By next year, we will have a special per capita tax in place to reimburse the buyer Comprehensive for their accounting and legal fees from the sale. HAHAHAHA

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Jun 2, 2017 7:16 pm

Guest

Breakerchains

This is just one example of why any government entity should run our health care. This is messed up, Medicare and Medicaid are messed up, the VA is messed up. Shall we go on? What’s that about a fool(s) doing things over and over again when in fact it doesn’t work!

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Jun 2, 2017 7:18 pm

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FUBAR

Don’t you mean SHOULD “NOT” RUN OUR HEALTH CARE?!

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Jun 2, 2017 11:01 pm

Guest

kasswfl

Omg

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Jun 2, 2017 7:20 pm

Member

FF84

Another Great Job on corruption in the Beaver County Clown House again JP! Why is it always the same names, but different song’s that keeps coming up in these investigation? JP should be getting paid by the DA for doing all of there work! All they have to do is read JP’s Investigating reports and follow up with each one and we would not be reading about the same old people week after week! This is all being handed to them on a silver platter and they do NOTHING about it! WHY? What do these people have on each other that make’s the DA look the other way? It just keeps going on and on! You get pulled over and get eaten alive and that’s OK, Someone writes a million dollar check and that OK, They move money around to secret County account’s and that’s OK, They do personal work on County time and that’s OK, They have fundraising on County time and that’s OK! It just goes on and on, and most of it is with the same names that keep coming up? I think the DA need’s to be investigated for what’s going on in this County! People we are getting our clock’s cleaned for million’s of dollars and nobody is doing anything about it! From the people we elected to do the cleaning? Again thanks JP for the investigating story’s, If not, we would not know of any of this was going on and on! Am surprised the Beaver County Times does not have anything on any of this!! I can’t finish this am laughing so hard my side hurt’s for just thinking of the Beaver County Times, now that’s a joke!

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Jun 3, 2017 1:37 pm

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mileage may vary

An ABSOLUTE ..THANK YOU John Paul/The Beaver Countian.
Amadio always asleep at the wheel.

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Jun 2, 2017 7:21 pm

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Valdamir

And Controller Rossi!

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Jun 4, 2017 9:54 pm

Member

equalizer13

He’s probably the biggest reason for all this corruption. He doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground!